Mining a rich seam
A new collaboration between Swansea Print Workshop and e South Wales Miners’ Library has resulted in a powerful exhibition about the Miners’ Strike and the lives of Welsh miners, writes Jenny White
TO MARK the 50th anniversary of e South Wales Miners’ Library and the 40th anniversary of the 1984 Miners’ Strike, members of Swansea Print Workshop have created a unique collection of prints on the theme of mining in Wales.
ese are on show this month at Taliesin, Swansea University, along with a selection of work by acclaimed printmaker Paul Peter Piech, drawn from the archive of his work held at Swansea University.
e South Wales Miners’ Library, part of Swansea University, is located in Tycoch, Swansea. It was set up in October 1973 to preserve oral, visual and written evidence of coal-mining and miners in south Wales that might otherwise have been lost, with the industry in sharp decline.
Its collections include printed book and pamphlet collections (including the libraries of more than 60 institute and welfare halls from across the coal eld), oral history, and video, poster, and banner collections. e library also houses several unique collections relevant to the social, political, educational and cultural histories of industrial south Wales.
In preparation for the exhibition, members of Swansea Print workshop explored the South Wales Miners’ Library’s extensive collection. ey also drew inspiration from a speci c selection of prints by Piech, which are featured in the exhibition. ey were made as illustrations for
Coal, A Sonnet Sequence by John Gurney, which was published in 1994 to mark the closure of the Tower Colliery.
Born in New York in 1920 to Ukrainian parents, Piech moved to Wales in the 1980s and made Wales and its social issues major themes in his printmaking. His work is internationally renowned and continues to inspire printmakers today – including those making work for this new exhibition.
A total of 22 Swansea Print Workshop artists took part in the project and put forward their prints for possible inclusion in the show. All 32 prints can be viewed in Swansea Print Workshop’s digital exhibition website.
Of the 32 prints created, 21 were chosen by Siân Williams, head of cultural collections engagement and curation, library and collections, Swansea University, and Mark Heycock, art collection and creative engagement co-ordinator, Swansea University.
“It was a great experience for our members,” says Jackie Ford, one of Swansea Print Workshop’s directors and co-founders. “We have people who were doing editions for the very rst time, and it was a great platform for new printmakers to learn how to make editions, which can be quite a skilled process.”
Swansea Print Workshop was set up in 1998 by Jackie, along with fellow printmaker Alan Williams. ey had been searching for a premises to locate a large printing press in order to produce work, and settled on a former dance
It was a great experience for our members. We have people who were doing editions for the very rst time, and it was a great platform for new printmakers to learn how to make editions, which can be quite a skilled process
vast and now houses two huge printing presses as well as providing plenty of space for workshops, life-drawing classes, and the
production of work.
A not-for-pro t company, Swansea Print Workshop has established a high pro le within
Wales and internationally, bringing artists from all over the world to deliver tuition and workshops.
Its classes and facilities are available for everyone from beginners to professional artists, and it provides regular opportunities to exhibit work – of which the new show at Taliesin is one.
“We now have over 100 members,” says Jackie. “We have a range of presses, some with a long history – including a very large etching press we purchased from Chelsea College of Art. It had been there about 50 years, so it must have been used by a huge number of printmakers during its time there.
“We also have a Colombian press built in 1853, which belonged to Bernard Green, an artist in Solva, and prior to that, many people will have printed on it in its lifetime.”
Swansea Print Workshop has a long history of collaboration with Swansea University, having taken part in many exhibitions at the Ceri Richards Gallery when it was overseen by the late Sybil Crouch.
“When Siân Williams and Mark Haycock approached us with a view to a producing a suite of prints for the library’s collection, we were delighted to be working with them again,” says Jackie.
“We were given carte blanche to choose a theme and at that point realised that the anniversary of the amazing collection – and the anniversary of the Miners’ Strike – would be a rich source of material.”
e resulting limited-edition prints are on sale in the exhibition and can be bought online (see below). Boxed sets of prints will also be placed in Swansea University’s permanent collection and in the collections of the six UK and Ireland National Libraries – the British Library; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the University Library, Cambridge; the National Library of Scotland; the Library of Trinity College, Dublin; and the National Library of Wales.
Besides the opportunity to see new work by contemporary printmakers, the show is an excellent opportunity to view a selection of linked works by Piech, all of which help to extend and deepen the mining theme.
“His work is extraordinarily graphic, and it’s very informed about the Miners’ Strike and miners’ lives at that time, because he was there,” says Jackie. “You can gain all sorts of insights about miners’ everyday life from his prints.”
e exhibition, titled Miners Imprint, runs at Taliesin Creative Studio, Taliesin Arts Centre, until the end of May, 1pm to 3pm. e work can be viewed online at swanseaprintmakers.com and prints from the exhibition can be purchased from swanseaprintworkshop.oprg.uk
We were given carte blanche to choose a theme and at that point realised that the anniversary of the amazing collection – and the anniversary of the Miners’ Strike – would be a rich source of material